Zach moved out into the clearing. He tried to postpone the encounter by walking as slowly as he could. His dad had gone back into the forest, watching.
The figures inside the barrier had become more defined as Zach crept closer. There were three boys and a girl. If Michael and Tristan were there, who were the other two? Zach opened his mouth, ready to call Michael and Tristan’s names, but before he could, the log cabin reappeared in front of him. His dad had been right. Victor—this witch, this ghost, wanted only him. The cabin beckoned him to enter.
The home blocked the view of the four people in back. He would have to go around the building to reach them.
Zach moved to his right and walked up the side of the front yard. The sound of the rushing creek followed him as he made his way closer to the house. When he reached the corner of the front porch, he reached his hand out to touch the wooden support beam that stretched from the railing to the roof. It was solid. Not a hologram. Not a figment of his imagination. A real, tangible structure.
He walked along the side of the home, his left hand sliding along the wall. A splinter in his finger made the home that much more real. He peered into the windows as he made his way around the house. An empty living area. A small, practical kitchen.
Attached to the back of the kitchen, the wood was fresher and cleaner. A large, open den with a piano. It seemed like a different home. An addition to the original structure. The addition Miranda had told him about.
Zach came to a dark room with a table in the middle. Were those rocks on the table? He pressed his nose against the window, trying to get a cleaner look. The shadows made it difficult to see, but there appeared to be a circle of rocks on the lone table. Miranda had said Victor built the addition to do some “pretty creepy stuff”. Zach wondered what the circle of rocks was used for. Could they be related to Chris’s stone in some way?
Zach reached the back corner of the cabin. He stopped and stood with his back against the wall, cowering, postponing the inevitable. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, slowing his fluttering heart.
Peering around the corner, the bright, glowing barrier stood ten feet in front of him. It was partially translucent. The four figures on the inside were blurred a bit, but their identities became clear. They were standing on the far side of the backyard, by the opposite barrier wall. Tristan and Michael were bending down digging a hole in the dirt. Logan and Jenny sat next to them, watching intently.
“Hey!” Zach called.
The four of them jerked their heads in Zach’s direction.
“Whatch y’all up to?” he said in his playful, southern twang.
Michael, Tristan, and Jenny sprinted to Zach’s side of the yard. Logan limped slowly behind them.
Zach took a step closer to the barricade.
“Wait!” Jenny yelled. “Don’t come any closer, Zach!”
Zach didn’t take another step. He waited anxiously for his friends to reach him.
“You can’t come in here,” Michael said. “There is no way out. You can help us better on the outside.”
Jenny and Tristan nodded.
Logan finally reached the others. He put his hand on Jenny’s shoulder for support. “I had … a feeling … you’d find us,” he huffed.
“Well, that’s what I do, right? Bail you out?”
“I guess,” laughed Logan.
“Wait a minute,” Zach said. “I’m so confused. I knew Michael and Tristan were out here somewhere, but how did you two find your way into this mess?” he asked, pointing at Logan and Jenny.
“It’s a long story,” Jenny said.
“Yeah. We’ll tell you all about it once we get out of here, but right now, we could use your help,” Logan said.
Zach could see Logan was physically struggling. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’ll live.” Logan gave a reassuring smile. “Listen, we figure there is only one possible way out of this thing. We have to go underneath it.”
“Is that what you guys are doing over there? Digging under the fence?”
“Yeah,” said Michael. “But the rocks aren’t exactly doing the trick. There’s a shed on the other side, outside the barrier. There may be some tools in there or something. We can’t get to it, but if you go around the house, you could. I think there’s a lock on it, so we have to figure out how to get the door open.”
Zach could see the shed through the barrier. “Okay. Let’s get you guys out of there. I’ll meet you on the other side.”
Zach ran back alongside the cabin to the front yard. He stopped and stood facing the front steps. Something is in there. Waiting for me. He took one step toward the cabin. Then another. Then another, until he stood on the first stair leading up to the porch. Zach shook his head violently. “My friends are trapped back there. I’ve gotta get them out,” he said partly to himself, and partly to whatever awaited him inside the cabin.
He jumped off the step and sprinted around the other side of the house, finding his way to the shed in the backyard. His friends waited for him, watching from inside their prison.
“Is this the shed?” Zach asked, looking at them over his shoulder.
“Yeah,” Logan said. “That’s it. You’ve got to get that padlock off somehow.”
Zach studied the lock. The wood surrounding it was old and rotted. “I bet I can do it without actually breaking the lock.”
“How?” Tristan asked.
“You’ll see,” Zach said.
He walked ten paces, turned around, and sprinted toward the structure. He took off and did a flying kick into the door of the shed. The wood anchoring the lock cracked, loosening the door. Zach walked back to his starting point. He turned to the four prisoners. “I took karate when I was seven. I think I still got it.”
Logan, Jenny, and Tristan could not help but laugh.
“I’m betting one more kick like that should do it,” Zach said. Again, he broke into a sprint, soared through the air, and jabbed the door of the shed with his right foot. This time, the wood shattered, causing the door to cave into the shed. Zach landed smoothly on both feet.
“Nice work, Karate Kid,” Logan said. “What do you see in there?”
Zach pushed the door open and scanned the shed for helpful tools. He turned to face his friends. “Jackpot,” he said. He came out of the shed with two spades and two rakes. “This might help.”
“Nice work,” said Tristan.
Zach began digging on the outside of the barrier, while Michael, Tristan, and Jenny dug from the inside. Jenny had insisted that Logan rest.
While they dug, Logan told Zach the story of how he and Jenny had found Michael and Tristan. Their search in the middle of the night. Being captured by the ghost. The fire, the creek, the burns on his legs.
Zach simply nodded, unfazed by the illogical story. In his new reality, logic no longer applied.
They continued to dig, making a small dent in the frozen soil.
“This is going to take forever to dig a hole big enough for us to fit through,” Michael said.
“Yeah, but what other choice do we have?” Jenny said.
“Jenny’s right. We have to try,” said Zach. He continued to scrape at the ground as hard as he could. “Ahh!” Zach dropped the spade from his hands.
“What’s wrong?” said Logan.
“The spade. The handle burnt my hands.” Zach kicked the spade with his foot. “Did yours get hot?”
Michael, Tristan, and Jenny shook their heads.
Zach stuck his nose in the air. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Do you guys smell that?” The foul odor had returned. Stronger than ever.
“I don’t smell anything,” Tristan said.
“No, me neither,” said Jenny.
Michael shook his head.
Logan stared at Zach.
“Do you smell it, Logan?” asked Zach.
“I think you know that I don’t.”
Zach turned toward the cabin. He stared it down like a hunter eyeing its prey. Zach could feel his three friends looking on with curiosity. “Guys,” he said, not taking his eyes off the cabin. “I have to go in there. Whatever it is that brought us here, it isn’t going to let me help you in this way. You guys keep digging. When you get the hole big enough, get out of here and run as fast as you can back to camp. Do not wait for me. You understand?”
“We can’t just leave you here,” Jenny said.
“Yeah. We’ll help you,” said Tristan.
“No guys,” Logan interrupted. “Zach’s right. He has to deal with this. He’ll meet us back at the camp. He’ll be fine. Right, Zach?”
Zach nodded to Logan. Then he turned toward the cabin. “I gotta go. Remember, keep digging and get out of here as fast as you can,” he said, looking back to his friends. Zach ran toward the front of the house, but stopped suddenly. He turned around to face the group of four one last time. “By the way, if you get out and need some help, my dad is in the woods over there on the north side of the cabin. He’s waiting for us.”
“Your dad’s here?” said Logan, shocked. “How did he get here? Why isn’t he with you?”
“It’s a long story. When we all get out of here, I’ll tell you all about it. I promise,” Zach said.
Logan nodded. “I bet you will,” he said.
Zach smiled, turned around, and ran as fast as he could toward the front door of the home. When he rounded the corner of the cabin, safely out of his friends’ view, he slowed to a walk. Zach’s expression turned stolid. He had the look of a rookie fire fighter staring into the bowels of a torrent of flames.
The inferno waited.
Zach hoped he would have the courage to face it.